Croatia have a home-grown Croatian coach. Always good, in international football, to have a coach who knows the culture.

You may be on to something.

I looked up Senegal's soccer coach, Aliou Cisse, on the web because I wondered if he was from Jamaica or somewhere else in the Caribbean due to his dreads, but learned that he is actually from Senegal.

I looked up Senegal's soccer coach, Aliou Cisse, on the web because I wondered if he was from Jamaica or somewhere else in the Caribbean due to his dreads, but learned that he is actually from Senegal.

But like you said, maybe it's not a coincidence that Senegal went further than the other black African teams.

Yes, that's a good point. One detail though, Senegal didn't go further than the other African teams (they all got knocked out in the group stage), but Senegal got more points than all the other African teams.

One would think that coaches/managers for World Cup teams ought to follow the same rule as the players - nationals only.

Either the World Cup follows nationals only rules, or not. Can't have one set of rules for players and a different set of rules for coaches/managers. That's just bullshit - exactly the kind of bullshit FIFA is famous for.

One thinks world soccer would be better off without FIFA - they are getting almost as bad as the International Olympic Committee.